Episode 83 - Sarah Hopkyns and English in the Gulf

[Music] Welcome to Lexis, the podcast all about language and linguistics. I'm Lisa Casey and Jackie Glancy. I'm Radirana and I'm Dank Leiter. [Music] So on this episode of Lexis we're really pleased to welcome Dr Sarah Hopkins from University of St Andrews where she's involved in teaching English as a second language in international education. Also has a role at the Institute of Education at UCL as a lecturer in intercultural communication and is a visiting research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. So welcome Sarah, thanks for joining us. Thank you. And we're also going to introduce Oli, who is an A-level student from Dubai. Oli's going to say a bit more about himself and how this episode came about. This is the second episode we've done with students sort of leading the discussion and leading the questioning. Again, it's really good to have A-level students involved in this. So welcome Oli. If you want to just tell us a bit about yourself then. Thank you very much. English A-level student in Dubai and I've lived in the country for 15 years between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which has meant I've developed a bit of an interest in Gulf English, pigeons as well as global English in general. I studied Arabic in primary school and early secondary school, but my proficiency is relatively low, which perhaps reflects the reality of the linguistic environment in the UAE as well as this street level examples. You could say, if Gulf English such as like Wallah, inshaAllah, yalla, habibi, wich on lexical fillers, that myself I use as well as people in my environment, that may not even speak Arabic. This is all very familiar to me because I lived in Abu Dhabi for 11 years. So everything that Oli is saying, that you're saying Oli is really familiar. So yeah, a lot of common ground here, everything. So before we do some of the sort of linguistics of this, can we do a bit of geography? I guess a few weeks ago, not everyone in the world would know what we meant by the Gulf and what the Gulf nations were, but I think given sort of recent world events, we probably more people are aware, but what do we mean by the Gulf and what are the Gulf nations? So when I write about the Gulf, I'm usually referring to the GCC states. So this is the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and they include six states or countries, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Some people when they write about the Gulf do include other nations, so they may include Iraq, but the GCC countries have a lot of shared cultural aspects, but also politically, they're a political bloc, so they tend to be talked about as a region, as the Gulf region, but they can also be referred to as the lower Gulf states if you want to be more specific. And what makes them so interesting linguistically, for example, which languages are being spoken there, and why? What's the sort of history behind some of that? Yeah, they're really fascinating countries because they are so linguistically diverse, and this is partly due to demographics. So if we look at the history of the Gulf region, they're because of the oil boom, there's a lot of migration, so from all over the world, but mainly from South Asian countries, and also there are many European expatriates there too, as well as migrants from South Asia, but some of these dynamics are a little controversial, even the labels that we use to describe the different transnational residents who live in the area are quite contested because there are scholars who argue, why do we use expatriate for some of the transnational residents, and why do we use migrants for others, so it is looking at imbalances there too, and hierarchies, but generally it's a very culturally multicultural, multilingual context, so fascinating to study in terms of language use. And just to give a few more details, it's not that the Gulf countries are a block, you know, they're not all the same in terms of demographics. There are some countries that have up to 90% of the population are transnational residents, and this includes the UAE and Qatar, and then some of the other Gulf states have fewer transnational residents, so countries like Oman and Saudi Arabia have fewer, so the dynamics are a little different across the Gulf states. I guess historically as well there's kind of different patterns, is it, has a population kind of increased the sort of western and South Asian population, for example, increased in recent years? Yeah, definitely there have been waves of migration based on what's happening politically, economically, but also I would say we will talk about this a little later I think, but in terms of education, English dominates, higher education in the Gulf states, particularly in the UAE, and so there is a lot of movement to do with internationalisation of higher education, lots of people attracted to the Gulf region to do their degrees in the medium of English. And I guess before English, which languages were tender to be spoke? Yeah, so the official language in the Gulf states is Arabic, this is the official language in all six Gulf states, but there are so many different languages, over a hundred different languages spoken by transnational residents, with English tends to be the lingua franca, but there's also a Gulf pigeon Arabic, which is used and we'll talk about I think a little later, but in more detail. Yeah, so you mentioned hierarchy, what effects do you think that social class and composition of the population have on the language use? The certain national and ethnic groups tend to congregate in particular occupations and how does that influence language use? Yeah, that's a great question, so I think there are quite a few divisions in terms of circles, of language groups, you know, people who will use certain languages with each other, but I think rather than looking at a cashier's concentric circle model where people are placed in groups, you know, we have the inner circle, the outer circle, the expanding circle. I think what's more useful in the Gulf context is to look at variety within these countries, and it's based on not where the people are from, but who the people are interacting with, because often people will change the way that they communicate according to who they're interacting with, and it's also quite complex, so there's a lot of trans-lingual practice in the Gulf, where it's not just one language being used, but it's many languages being mixed together, and also things like gestures as well are important, so we're looking at semiotic repertoires, as well as linguistic repertoires. I think another really important aspect is time and space, so it's looking at how languages used in certain spaces, and this is something that you just talked about, you know, are there certain places where certain speakers will congregate? And I think yes, there are certain neighbourhoods, you know, where, I mean, when I was living in Abu Dhabi, I lived in a complex called Al-Zena, which was very much dominated by transnational residents, and it had a lot of English shops, like they had a weight troze there, so it tended to attract people who were familiar with English coffee shops or English supermarkets, and so, you know, every second person you'd meet would be English or British there, but, you know, then in other neighbourhoods, it would be completely different, you'd have a different composition, so I think it can be a struggle to really experience everything there is to experience in the Gulf States, because there definitely are bubbles, you know, and some people don't really venture outside their bubble, and that goes for language and culture. Just thinking a little bit about the, you've mentioned sort of translingual practice. Translanguaging is something that I think is probably relatively new to quite a lot of people studying this, you know, outside academia, so what do you mean by translanguaging? How is that different from, for example, code switching or style shifting? Yeah, that's a great question. So linguistic hybridity is sort of an umbrella term that we could use for all these types of practice, like code switching and translanguaging, but the difference between code switching and translanguaging and code switching and translanguaging are used all over the world, so bilingual, multilingual speakers will use code switching and translanguaging, it's not just restricted to the Gulf context. And the code switching is the swapping between two or more systems of language. So there tends to be a firm division between the languages. Whereas translanguaging is using a combination of languages and semiotic resources to aid communication. And it's more fluid. And so in one sentence, there could be English, Arabic, other languages, or mixed together. But usually the effect is to strengthen communication or to improve rapport. Because if people share the same languages, then using both or in the sentence can actually enhance meaning and connections with people too. And presumably not just in terms of kind of oral communication, but also, I guess, what signs and sort of symbols in the Indian environment as well. Yeah, this is something I look at a lot in my research is linguistic landscapes. So how languages are represented in public spaces or in semi-public spaces. But actually we tend to see less translanguaging in written form. Definitely top down signs don't really include translanguaging. They tend to have Arabic and English represented on separate signs. So you'll have the English version and the Arabic version. But you'd rarely see the languages mixed in public spaces. Except that sometimes bottom up signs can be seen. So where students at a university might write a sign, like a handwritten note, and it will include Arabic and English mixed. So that's common, but not for government presigns, so usually separated. The languages are separated. But there are two other forms of linguistic hybridity, which I think are really important to mention in the Gulf context. And they're quite unique to the Middle East and the Gulf states. And one is white dialects. And this is a type of interlanguage hybridity. So it's where two speakers who have Arabic as their first language will use a sort of middle ground version of Arabic. So they will alter their dialects to try and find a mutual understanding. And the aim of doing this is to try and avoid using English as a lingua franca. Because there is, we'll talk about this a little later as well, but there is a lot of discourse in the Gulf states around too much English being used. So there is this effort sometimes by Arabic speakers not to use English as a lingua franca, but to try and use white dialects this middle ground. But another type of linguistic hybridity, which is common in the Gulf is Arabic. Arabic is used for written communication, usually informal written communication. So taking notes or texting. And it's where Roman letters and numbers are used to represent Arabic sounds in informal writing. So for example, the word 'wa'ed, which is one in Arabic, the aspirated H would be represented as the number seven. So it's a way of communicating in Arabic, but not using the Arabic script. Does that ring true for you, Ollie? Is that the sort of chime with your experience of language use where you are? Yeah, definitely. You definitely see it a lot, especially in texting, informal settings, 100%. You kind of mentioned cashru earlier on, didn't you Sarah? There's also other people who've come up with theories and models around language use generally around the world. But I noticed one of your papers you'd quoted Mario Sarah Cheney who talked about that sort of idea that language is don't exist alongside each other, but sort of merge blend mesh. And it's this sort of traditional labels don't necessarily work when you're talking about communication in a place like the Gulf. And presumably other places as well. Is that a kind of fair description of what's going on, that sort of hybridity you've talked about? Yes, absolutely. So I think rather than additions, one language plus another language plus another language, it's more about multiplication. So it's how languages intersect and there are multi-lead diversity found in these contexts and spaces. So just as you said, it's this merging, blending, meshing, and these traditional labels of this language and this language don't really fit. It's more about translingual practice as authentic communication, I would say. And you can see this not only in daily communication, but more and more, you can see it represented in literature, local literature, and local arts or TV as well. So there's slowly becoming, I think, a recognition that the way people communicate should be reflected in literature, books, arts. And so there are a few authors who recently have purposely included Gulf dialects and translingual practice in their novels. One is a book by a Kuwaiti, an Anglo-Kawati author who wrote the pact we made. And in this book she includes a lot of Arabic dialect words and also a lot of translanguaging. And when she was interviewed about why she did that, she said that she wanted to make bilingual speakers in the Gulf feel welcome or feel that what she was writing was representing them authentically. So she didn't gloss any of the Arabic words on purpose. And it is Gulf pigeon, something worth mentioning. And in terms of English and Arabic hybrids, what role does English itself have in countries in the Gulf? Is there such thing as a Gulf English, per se? Yeah, these are really good questions. So first to talk about Gulf pigeon Arabic. So this is a form of Arabic that came about from workers generally from south and southeast Asia coming to the Gulf and not having Arabic as a language but developing Arabic because they were communicating with local employers. So it's a way of communicating that involves a sort of simplified Arabic, especially around pronouns. So using, yeah, simplified pronouns, but also some borrowings from English mixed in with this simplified Arabic. But the problem, not the problem, but one issue around Gulf pigeon Arabic is how it's stigmatized. So it's not something that has ever developed in any way because of how it's looked down upon as not being a sort of real language or a real dialect. But also I think it has to do with who the speakers are. Workers from south and southeast Asia have come usually as usually their men and usually they've come and they're single. They don't bring their families with them. And so this language doesn't get passed on to the next generation. So there is this idea that it never really develops or doesn't develop into a creole. So if these workers stay longer, then there are efforts to adjust their language to be more like Gulf Arabic and to move away from this Gulf pigeon Arabic. But in terms of is there a Gulf English? This is a really interesting question because different scholars say different things. But based on, you know, corpus studies that have looked at how English speakers in the Gulf use English, there are some patterns that have been found in terms of when we look at grammar and also pronunciation and lexas. We can see certain patterns based on these corpus. So Fusal in 2011 collected corpus data mainly from his English language teaching context. In Inomani University, so a university in Inomani. And also more recently, Palfriman and Habash published an edited book based on the analysis of a newly established corpus which was from Zayed University which has a campus in Abu Debbie and Dubai. And they called this corpus the Zayed Arabic English bilingual undergraduate corpus. Or I guess Z-E-B-U-C. That's how they abbreviated. But the corpus included 214 Arabic essays and 388 English essays written by bilingual Emirati undergraduates at Zayed University in the UAE. And these essays were written in their first semester and they analysed the language in both sets of essays. And they found when they looked at grammar often when students are using English, they include a dummy subject so it might be a sentence like "Mahar, she lives there" you know so you have these two, a pronoun plus the name. And that was also found in Fusil's corpus. And in terms of Lexus they found, these studies have found that collocations vary the way speakers use collocations vary according to which language they're using. So when using English, they tend to be low exclusivity collocations like bad way or good way or wrong way. But when using Arabic, there are more exclusive collocations such as double edged sword or even more recently those sorts of exclusive, exclusive collocations. In terms of pronunciation, there are a lot of Americanisms used by Gulf speakers of English and this tends to come from watching a lot of American media such as TV and movies so reducing words like going to to gunner you know or want to whunner. But also there's a big nanny culture in the Gulf and maybe Oli you know all about this but a lot of families you know both parents are working will hire a nanny and the nanny tends to come from the Philippines or Ethiopia or Sri Lanka and so there have been studies that have looked at third culture kids in the Gulf you know children who grow up with parents from different countries but they're growing up in the Gulf. But also Emirati children who have nannies from another country and looking at their pronunciation studies have found that there are intonation patterns from the Philippines or from Sri Lanka and English so these sorts of patterns emerge. Do you want to speak to that Oli a little have you found that? Definitely I think even myself I would um I guess identify as a third culture kid and I see the vast majority of my friends as well and especially you mentioned the Americanisms I find myself guilty of that as well even though I am English just growing up around people who use it and it's like becoming a part of my vocabulary as well. I was wondering what role does Arabic have in this sort of Gulf English? Is it just these small words every now and then? Yeah that's also a good question so um just before I go on to speak about that I just want to mention that the term Gulf English is a little controversial because there are also scholars who say okay there are all these shared patterns but perhaps these patterns can also be seen in other contexts where English is used as a lingua franca so because the Gulf is so transient and people are always moving often people don't stay for very long or they move on they move back to their home country you know when they're adults or or you know at some point in their lives then there is this you know this this idea that an end-inormative stance or a standard local variety of Gulf English has not yet been established so it's too early to talk about it as Gulf English but it's more about noting patterns but recognizing that the way people use English in the Gulf is probably highly changeable you know we're always watching you know how new new patterns that might come up so some scholars argue strongly against the term Gulf English at this point in time they just say there are patterns that's I mean that's really interesting isn't it because I think there's there's I don't know if it's sort of something about UK dialectology and the sort of you know British focused discussion that we often have you know in Britain and then that sort of assume to be a sort of mindset for other people as well is dialects seem to be so associated with place and I guess historically you know localities regions and maybe there is that sense that these varieties are place varieties but what you're talking about in the Gulf is is something that's much more fluid isn't it and it's about sort of changing almost sort of changing your sort of mental paradigm to think about how you deal with those kinds of things and see them in a completely different way is that is that a fair way of describing it yeah that's exactly how it is and that's why I think it's really important again to refer to cash routes concentric circles model you know to get away from these place-based identities or language groups because actually when people are moving all the time and interacting with different people from different places then it takes on a whole new layer of complexity it's not it isn't place-based it's I mean it isn't nationality-based it's it's to do with interactions and dynamic circumstances yeah there was somebody who used the expression of while ago it's not way from it's where you're at yes perfect yeah that's how I feel it is yeah but you mentioned Oli Arabic you know how does Arabic interact with English in the Gulf so I think it is for you translingual practice but you know as you mentioned earlier this ala lexicon you know using all these phrases that include ala like inshilar and atwala and these words are second nature to most people who live in the Gulf whether they have Arabic is their first language or not and they are sort of peppered over speech by everyone everyone uses them and they become automatic you know automatic way of of their responding you know maybe in an English sentence but then these words popped in at different places and but I think more than that it's more than that though because you know living in the Gulf you do pick up some Arabic but probably not enough Arabic because the way it's taught in international schools I think is a little problematic because they tend to have two groups so they have the native Arabic speakers and then they have the second language learners or the non-native Arabic speakers and in turn I mean I know this experiences apparent because my son spent his first 11 years in the Gulf in an international school with a British curriculum and he went to a bilingual nursery when he was a young English Arabic nursery which was attached to my university and he actually as a very young child had a lot of Arabic and the teachers used to say oh his Arabic is amazing and but we couldn't really support it at home properly so he then sort of lost a lot of his Arabic when he went to his international school that was English medium because students were coming and going from his Arabic course you know maybe the parents got a job somewhere else and moved and then new people came in so they were always starting from scratch almost every term so I think it would be better you know if they want more people to speak Arabic to to mix local students with international students in terms of yeah helping expatriates to learn Arabic what are your thoughts on that Oli? Do you think English has become such a lingua franca in the region it's almost a lack of need to speak Arabic if you walk into any coffee shop any supermarket you'll be greeted with English before Arabic no matter who you are and I think even at times the employees probably have better English skills than Arabic as well so that definitely doesn't help in terms of making Arabic a more widely spoken language in my experience Arabic classes were seen as more of a free time than anything myself being in the second set of non-native speakers I don't think a lot of kids take it seriously which is definitely a more of a systemic problem and I think even the teachers as well sometimes they understand that the kids don't want to be there and therefore yeah I think that's such a good point because it is this element of you know lack of choice because you know one has chosen it as a second language in a way it's being forced upon them you know it's part of the curriculum and so that works both ways because in higher education English is forced upon you know everyone who does degrees in the Emirates they have to do it through the medium of English and no matter what the university is whether it's a government university in private university or a branch campus English is the medium of instruction for almost all degree courses apart from certain subjects like Islamic studies or Arabic language so I think whenever you know language is forced or isn't a choice there is that sometimes that lack of interest or you know lack of all this resentment even yeah so so it is interesting that fits with something else that I've been researching recently which is you know Emirati students and and what their which language is their interest interested in learning other than English. And there seems to be, I mean, this is one of the questions that I think we're set to talk about a little later, but is to do with how culture affects language in the, in the Gulf. And I think more and more we're seeing the influence of Chinese, of Korean, of Japanese, these sorts of cultural interests, at least when I was living in the Gulf, which is fairly recently, you saw Chinese had been introduced as a third language in schools, and you see in the linguistic landscape, you know, a lot of Chinese now, but also this interest that students have in the K-wave and in Japanese literature, it's often a language that they do use as part of their translingual repertoire. I don't know whether you see that in your school, or whether you see interest in other languages. - Personally in my school, I don't think so, but that is also partially due to the very small minority of local children that actually attend my school, being in British school. And I think maybe that does have something to do with the public versus private schools, with a lot of local children that I know attending public schools, whereas the international schools are being war for international community. - Yeah, but in terms of cultural identity as well, this is something, you know, you mentioned, you go into a shop, and you know, the first thing you hear is English, so the person serving you will use English. And I think this has to do with demographics, so probably the people working in the shops, they may be from the Philippines, so they're more comfortable with English than Arabic. And so then that also is problem, it can be problematic for Emirates because there is this idea that, you know, they're in their own country, where Arabic is the official language, but they're not able to use Arabic in daily life with, you know, for transactions. And this is something, you know, in my research, when I was looking at cultural identity in the way global English affects local cultural identity. This came up again and again as a problem, you know, because it is hard when you're living in a society where English is so dominant that Arabic is being slightly pushed out or it's being, it's only used within certain domains. So this idea of domain loss, you know, in educational context, it's not being used as the medium of instruction in higher education, but also in public life, you know, when you're in a mall or you're in another public space, it's not being used as much as English. So it's restricted to the family and to religion. And so I think that is definitely, it's being talked about in the media, in public discourse. It's something that is important to look at. In terms of local and national pride, do you think it seems like English could be definitely seen as a threat to that? And do you think that there's been attempts to protect Arabic and if so, what attempts have been made? Yeah, this is a really good question, because yes, there have been lots of newspaper headlines, newspaper articles warning against the dominance of English and the effect it has on local cultural identities and the Arabic language. And there have been government initiatives to try and strengthen the Arabic language, often with English being blamed for Arabic attrition. But there's also been a lot of research, including mine, you know, trying to look at all the nuances or the intricacies around these issues. I think it's not only English, but it's slightly to do with the way English and Arabic are positioned in society. So there tends to be these monolingual ideologies, this idea that English is important, Arabic is important, but they should be separate. And I think a better or a healthier way to look at languages is to recognise the fact that they do merge together and that's not a bad thing. That's part of how people communicate in linguistically diverse places. But I think from the Arabic side, there tends to be this-- some authors have called it a crisis trope, you know, where Arabic is held up as this perfect language that shouldn't be touched or shouldn't change. And by English being so dominant, there is this idea that if English is used with Arabic, then Arabic is being threatened or endangered, rather than letting it interact with English and becoming-- letting it change, you know, letting it be used more casually, more flexibly. So by having that very sort of strict protection of Arabic, I think it in some ways goes against, or it sort of-- it has the opposite effect in a way. It's just very interesting here when you say that about Arabic as soon as being in need of protection. And of course, you know, the irony being so many UK-based publications, you know, and many of the texts that we study on the course and critique on the course would be things that are saying, you know, English is under threat from American English, or young people's English, or the language of immigrants from other parts of the world and things like that. Yet here's exactly that same argument being used. And I guess that's probably a kind of conservative, prescriptive trope that we see in a lot of kind of language protection sort of discourses or language purity discourses. And as you say, it's very much, you know, linguists would view this as a natural, pluralistic kind of way in which languages work together and become more than just languages. Forms of communication that people can share and use in real life. Yet they still this sort of mental image of languages as even monoliths that need to be protected from each other. And, you know, that just seems to be a rather kind of reactionary kind of argument, doesn't it? Yeah, exactly. It seems to you, it doesn't help the language grow or be stay lively and relevant if you're trying to wrap it up and not let it be affected by anything outside. But then it is complicated because Arabic is a language that is so tied to religion, you know. So there are arguments that, you know, it's not only English, which is affecting Arabic, but it's also Western ways of knowing and, you know, Western cultural influences, which are tied to English, which may affect Arabic-speaking cultures. So I think it is a complicated issue. It's not an easy topic in a way to say, yeah, to talk about. But also I think we need to recognise that Arabic is not just, we can't just talk about Arabic as one category because of diglossia in Arabic. So there are many forms of Arabic, you know, there's a classical Arabic used in the Quran. Also there's modern standard Arabic and there's also, there are also many gulf dialects or holy dialects. So there's also this mentality that some Arabic are the high form and some are the low form. So it's also looking at how we can unpick that too because there's as well as thinking that English is flattening Arabic. There's also this resistance to using dialects, you know, in formal domains. But some scholars have also said we need to try and be more flexible in terms of allowing different forms of Arabic into formal domains such as education. It's interesting that some of this appears to be kind of quite top down as well and I think you were talking earlier on about attitudes towards some of the pigeon forms that, for example, or maybe more vernacular forms that were sort of blending or, you know, trans language sort of practices that were seen as lower prestige. It just kind of reminded me a little bit of some of the stuff that was happening in Singapore around, you know, the speak real English kind of campaign and singlish being sort of seen as substandard. Yet here were many, many people sort of voting with their feet and voting with their mouths by using it. And it was, you know, those top down things seem to be kind of quite limited in their sort of impact on how people actually use language in the real world. Is that a similar sort of picture to what you see in the Gulf? Or is there maybe more of a sort of hierarchy that's at work around some of these decisions? Yeah, I think there are a few hierarchies, but also there's this issue of domain is so important because we see in when it's something informal. So in the Gulf, you see a lot of t-shirt designs, you know, using Arabic and English together, you know, this translingual practice on t-shirt designs or during expo, which took place in 2021, you know, a lot of the Gulf pavilions would use English and Arabic mixed together in a very natural way. And that was all accepted and seen as creative and innovative or authentic. and it was seen as something that was welcomed. But then I think if you take that translingal practice and put it in a more formal domain like education universities or it would, it's seen differently. It's seen then as this guilty practice or something that's taboo and looked down upon. So domain I think is very important in the Gulf context. I just, I do think that with non-arbitg and arbitg speakers, especially within the youth, this kind of mixed culture is such a huge part of growing up in the Gulf. And it's, I think, something that's very, very close to home for a lot of people and it does make people feel involved. I think for myself, if I, 20 years in the future, if I hear a mix of Arabic and English, I will kind of get a warm feeling inside almost. Yeah. Like it reminds me of home a bit. And I do think that's a similar experience for a lot of people growing up in the Gulf. Yeah. And that's so well said because even, I mean, I didn't grow up in the Gulf, but I had, you know, 11 years of my life in the Gulf. And I moved back to the UK two years ago. But even now, you know, I still feel very, very warm towards whenever I hear English and Arabic mix together or just anything to do with the Gulf. I have these very warm feelings. So I think it does become part of people's identity, no matter, you know, what age they were when they lived in the Gulf. But especially probably for third culture kids growing up in the Gulf. It does become part of their identity, this translingual way of communicating. That seems like a nice positive way to round off the discussion. So thanks very much Sarah. That's really interesting. And thanks very much, Oli, for, you know, the questions and the sort of thought behind them and the inside of knowledge as well. That's really, really good. So, thanks very much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. (upbeat music)